(WINDSOR, ON) – Spending at EnWin is out of control. Since 2011, the energy distributor, owned by the City of Windsor, has increased revenues, increased net income, and increased the cost to residential customers, all the while decreasing services to an eroding customer base.

When compared to a select group of Ontario distributors, the wildly spending administrators at EnWin becomes even more apparent.

In 2011, EnWin had a captive audience of 76,915 residential customers. Over the intervening three years to 2014, the number of residential customers rose to 78,144, or an increase of just 1.6%. Over that same period, however, revenues from distribution rocketed upward by 21.4%, indicating a corresponding increase in rates charged to users.

Even more dire is the fact that net income, the amount left over from revenue after expenses are paid out, saw a jaw dropping increase of 45.9%. Are consumers being charged exorbitantly by EnWin?

The answer is a resounding, “Yes.”

To the distributor’s credit, the level of service in Windsor is relatively constant with EnWin reporting just 1.85 times, on average, per year that power is lost to Windsorites. And, on average, each time there is an outage, power is restored within 0.81 hours, or around 47 minutes.

There is no issue with the service level even though 60 other distributors in the province experience fewer yearly outages than EnWin.

Windsor’s energy distributor spends a lot of money on operating their distribution system. In 2011, the total spent on Operations was $1,612,602 while another $2,096,927 was spent on Maintenance. Together, O&M came in at $3,709,529.

By 2014, O&M increased to $4,164,019, however the maintenance component dropped 5% while operations increased by 35%. A larger portion of revenues was directed away from the nuts and bolts and toward the soft expenses.

Operations expenses include supervision, labour, supplies, and rents, to name a few.

More egregiously, the real spending at EnWin is in the area of Administration. Money spent on EnWin’s administration has increased $1.6 million between 2011 and 2014, or 8.2%. However, administration costs account are a whopping 396% more than O&M costs. In 2014, EnWin spent $4.16 million on operations and maintenance combined. In the same year, EnWin spent $20.6 million on administration.

Looking at it another way, for every dollar spent by EnWin on O&M, they spent $4.96 on administration.

For every residential customer in Windsor, EnWin spends $264 on administration.

For every kilometre of power line, EnWin spends $17,833 on administration while spending just $1,720 on maintenance.

But how does EnWin stack up against other distributors? For comparison, we looked at four other Ontario distributors.

Typically, the traditional comparator for EnWin is London Hydro. Other comparators were Burlington, Kitchener-Wilmot, and Oakville.

London has, and maintains, over twice as many kilometres of power line as EnWin does. And while none of Windsor’s lines are classified as rural, London has a great many km of rural lines, which adds to the cost of upkeep.

London spent $16.9 million on administration in 2014 while EnWin spent $20.6 million. EnWin had 190 fulltime employees in 2014. London had 312. London spent $1.10 on administration for every dollar spent on O&M. London spent $15.4 million on O&M.

Burlington spent dollar-for-dollar on administration as they did on O&M. Oakville was 83 cents. Kitchener was 68 cents.

EnWin has applied to the Ontario Energy Board for a rate increase in 2016. The OEB has indicated that they will make a decision without a public hearing.

In almost every case, large energy consumers will receive a reduction on their EnWin bill. For residential customers, there will be an increased invoice from EnWin of between 7.6% and 13.4%, depending on energy consumption. However, counter-intuitively, the more energy you use, the lower the increase will be.

How much of this increase is designated to feed the administration black hole at EnWin?

In a letter to EnWin from the OEB, dated 22 October 2015, and addressed to Laura Rauch, the distributor was directed to display their application for a rate increase on their website. They had three days in which to do so.

As of 27 November, EnWin had failed to comply with the directive.

Your application is available on the 2016 EDR webpage of the OEB’s website. You are also directed to make a copy of the application available in a prominent place on your company’s website within 3 business days.

Ian Shalapata can be heard at 8:30 pm every Monday evening and noon every Wednesday co-hosting Talkin’ ‘Bout Windsor on CJAM 99.1 FM. Listen on demand to previous episodes or catch the discussion live and join in. Talkin’ ‘Bout Windsor is broadcast every Monday and Wednesday to the Windsor and Detroit listening area and streamed online at CJAM.

About the Author

Ian writes for and provides imagery to Square Media Group as well as accepting freelance photographic assignments. In addition, he has contributed to media organizations, sporting groups, and individuals across North America including the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, Chatham-Kent Sports Network, the Golf Association of Michigan, League 1 Ontario, as well as numerous colleges and universities in Canada and the United States.
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3 Commentson "EnWin Spending Wildly Out Of Control"

They are in the process of replacing everyones water meters with radio frequency meters. This is to save them money in the long run by cutting the cost of reading these meters. Will the savings be passed on to the customer? Lol…
They are using our money to replace meters that were working just fine. They have hired contractors to install them(more money spent), all for their benefit. While keeping the customers in the dark about how these meters work, the battery that will need to be changed every couple years and the meter readers that will lose their jobs because of them. Unlike the smart electric meters these are not being installed under any bi-law. They simply tell the person they are due for a new meter and it will be done free of charge. Sure its not billed to you but your paying for it somehow or another.

Now this should be proof to all taxpayers in Windsor that we have the wrong person running this city (ineffective Dilkens), our hydro bills are rising with no end in site.
We need an Auditor General for our city, this article should confirm that, now I hope our elected city councillors will react to this article.